Holy Father Pope Francis expressed his love for India as he flew over the country on his way to Myanmar. The aircraft flew above New Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi and Kolkata before arriving at Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority nation. The Pontiff had expressed his desire last year to visit India, where Christianity arrived in the apostolic times but the visit could not materialize mainly because of the difficulties in adjusting the dates of the Pope and the Indian leaders.
“I love India”, the head of Catholics all over the world remarked when George Kallivayalil, the only Indian among 75 accompanying media persons, greeted him inside the special flight from Rome. As reported by mattersindia.com, Kallivayalil, the New Delhi based resident editor of Deepika newspaper said that Pope Francis walked to him and hugged and shook his hands inside the flight. Kallivayalil said that “Pope Francis gave me a special love when he was told that I am from an Indian newspaper, Deepika and the Pope then said, “I love India.”.”
India has more than 19 million Catholics who live in 174 dioceses, the largest in Asia and the country also tops in the number of Catholic priests and religious in the region.
